Lucia

Lucia ST., a Roman Catholic saint of the 3d or the beginning of the 4th century, is said to have been of a noble Sicilian family. Her legendary history is as follows. Having gone on a pilgrimage with her mother to the grave of St. Agatha for the restoration of the latter's health, she resolved to become a nun. Her mother assented, but a young man whom she was engaged to marry, angry at her resolution, denounced her as a Christian. She acknowledged the truth of the charge when brought before the judges, and was condemned to enter a brothel; but when Paschasius gave the order to take her thence it was found impossible to move her from the spot, even though yokes of oxen were employed to draw her. Paschasius now attempted to burn her, and had boiling pitch and oil poured on her, but in vain; he then ran her through with a sword, when she prophesied the downfall of Diocletian, the death of Maximian, and the arrest and death of Paschasius. She died after partaking of the body of the Lord, and on the spot a church was afterwards erected. Her life is contained in Laurentius Servius's De praobatis Sanctosnum histories, December 13, and in a number of martyrologues, but it has often been attacked as spurious even by Romanists, and is therefore not found in the Acta Sanctorunm. She is commemorated on December 13. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 8:496; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, s.v.